Re: Why Do the Republicans Hate the Clintons so Much?


"Islander" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:HsCdnYt2vvJRxTranZ2dnUVZ_rGhnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
mg wrote:
I've given some thought to this and I can only come up with two
significant reasons:

1. They were very popular and even maintained that popularity after
Bill Clinton was impeached.

2. Hillary's health care proposal.



Here is my theory:

Bill Clinton represented a serious threat to the Reagan "reduce taxes,
borrow and spend, trickle down" theory of economics. I still think that
Perot deserves the credit for finally bringing this to the attention of
the American public, but Clinton got the message and ran with it. The
Republicans were far from defeated, however, as Gingrich proved in the
midterm elections, but the Republicans were left with the dubious argument
that the prosperity of the Clinton years was only possible because of a
Republican Congress.

The roots of the animosity between the parties goes back to the Vietnam
war and the deep divisions in the American political scene in the
aftermath. Nixon, in his corruption, put off the worst of this until
Reagan could rebuild the coalition of interest groups that opposed liberal
ideals. The Reagan era also saw the emergence of right wing think tanks
that helped to build an energetic right wing. Likewise, the religious
right found a willing advocate in Reagan and their influence strengthened.

So, Clinton was a serious threat and had to be dealt with. Unfortunately,
like many leaders before him, he couldn't resist the ladies. He was
attacked for his indiscretions while the real target was his liberal
values. Both he and his ideals suffered as a consequence.

The message in all this is that we should never underestimate the power of
the right. Bush has damaged the Republican party, but there is a core
strength that still exists and has a continuing influence in Washington.
We need to be continually aware of this and in the new administration be
very careful to avoid extremes of the left that might be used to rebuild
the right.

There are other factors:

As you've likely noticed, there is a very large percentage of Americans who
make political decisions based on issues of character. It's well known, as
you mention, that this is not an area that Clinton scores highly in, and
this was well-known prior to and during the 1992 election. Supporters
discounted the womanizing and draft stories, people who were not supporters
listened.

Also, there is also the matter of visceral reaction. So much has been
written about his "charisma" (which is a visceral reaction) people tend to
forget that others reactly oppositely to such personal characteristics.
There are a lot of people who simply just can't look at the man. I'm one of
them, and so is my wife. His face pops up on the TV, I reach for the remote.
Reflex. (I do the same with Bush, but for different reasons.)

So, to conclude, I'd say that there are people who just intensly dislike
him, either for character reasons or for personality reasons, and these
people never really got so far down the road with him so far as to think
about policy matters. He was already disqualified as a candidate before any
thought of that whatsoever.

JG


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